The following post was first published on ConSoc’s previous site. It is recorded here as a window onto issues as they were at the time. For more up to date news on the Constitution and Constitutional reform, make sure to follow the ConSoc blog.

THE DATE:

Thursday 5 May 2011.

WHO CAN VOTE:

You can vote if you; (1) are over 18 over on 5 May 2011 (2) are registered to vote and (3) are either a British citizen, a qualifying Commonwealth citizen or a citizen of the Irish Republic resident in the UK.

[First Published on Tuesday 5th April 2011]

The following post was first published on ConSoc’s previous site. It is recorded here as a window onto issues as they were at the time. For more up to date news on the Constitution and Constitutional reform, make sure to follow the ConSoc blog.

Ahead of May’s referendum on the Alternative Vote, Labour peer Baroness Hayter argued this week that First Past the Post is the right electoral system for the UK. Any change would have unknown consequences and a change to AV would obscure the link between people’s votes and the parties in power.

The following post was first published on ConSoc’s previous site. It is recorded here as a window onto issues as they were at the time. For more up to date news on the Constitution and Constitutional reform, make sure to follow the ConSoc blog.

A senior government minster has laid into David Cameron’s plans to reduce the number of MPs should he get into power. Justice Minister Jack straw accused the Conservative’s call to cut the cost of politics of being “camouflage for a dangerous, destructive and anti-democratic piece of gerrymandering”.

He also noted that reducing the number of MPs would disproportionately harm those living in traditional Labour areas such as inner cities and Scotland. “The Conservatives aim to butcher scores of constituencies for sordid political ends” he told those attending the Hansard Society event, “their proposal isn’t about cutting the cost of politics; it is about advantaging the conservative party”.

Mr Straw rejected Tory claims that the number of MPs has increased significantly, telling those present at the Hansard Society event that there are only 3% more MPs than in 1950 even though the British population has increased 25% over the same time.

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ConSoc is an independent, non-party educational foundation which works to promote informed debate about constitutional reform. We take no position on specific reform proposals but advocate better legislative standards and oppose ill-considered, piecemeal change.

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Nat le Roux gives evidence to the PCRC on the role and powers of the judiciary in the UK constitution.

Richard Gordon QC at the launch of the report: ‘Select Committees and Coercive Powers – Clarity or Confusion?’

The launch event for The Constitution Society’s new project Young People and the Constitution with Speaker of the House of Commons Rt Hon John Bercow MP. For more information on Young People and the Constitution please visit our YPC page.